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Cy-Fair vs. Cypress Falls tonight at 8pm EDT on ESPN2. As Brian put it, Sam McGuffie gets more national coverage than the University of Michigan. I’m going to try to watch at least halftime through the beginning of garbage time and give my impressions.

Michigan’s star running back, Mike Hart, has distanced himself from the pack at this point in the Heisman race. Fans are erecting websites for this man, as they feel he is the clear front-runner. An appropriately-titled post on a popular Michigan blog describes the way Michigan fans feel about their #20.

Hart has never been a speedster, and many thought this would hurt him in his Heisman candidacy, due to his inability to break the “highlight reel” runs. However, Mike has completed many runs which could qualify, including his 54-yard touchdown run against Appalachian State, putting the Wolverines ahead with 4:36 left in the game, and his acrobatic rolling touchdown against Purdue, which buried the Boilermakers by the first quarter.

Many critics would state that Hart was of no help to his team during losses to Appalachian State and Oregon. However, as evidenced above, Michigan’s loss to Appalachian State was despite a superhuman effort from Hart, and he could have done little more than his 23 rushes for 188 yards and 3 touchdowns. Against Oregon, Hart was injured, yet still managed to carry the team on his back, rushing 25 times for 127 yards despite the complete lack of a Michigan passing game, and the the fact that Michigan was playing from behind all game. Even in the two Michigan losses, Hart carried the team on his back. One man can only take a flawed team so far.

As far as Hart’s status for Saturday’s game against Illinois? At this point, not even Mike’s mother knows how healthy he’ll be come Saturday night, but all indications are he will play – even if he’s at less than 100%. Co-captain Jake Long has complete faith that Hart will hit the field in Champaign on Saturday, going as far as to state “There’s no doubt in my mind he’ll play.” If he has proven nothing else in his four years as a Wolverine, it is that #20 is a warrior, and if he is physically capable of walking out onto the field, he will give his all to deliver a victory to the University of Michigan.

In fact, if loyalty to one’s team was a criterion in the Heisman voting, Hart would be without competition for the award. In the summer, when former Michigan Quarterback Jim Harbaugh spoke ill of his alma mater, Hart didn’t hesitate to fire back, asserting, “He’s not a Michigan man. I wish he’d never played here.” Hart’s loyalty to his team doesn’t stop with such defense of the program, he even went above and beyond guaranteeing victory of Notre Dame, despite the team coming off back to back losses to App. State and Oregon.

Hart is certainly the most deserving Heisman candidate at this point. Expect a highlight video in this space sometime in the next week or so.

2007 Eligibility Expiration:Jamar AdamsChris GrahamMichael HartChad HenneAll of these players have played this year, and will not be able to redshirt. Therefore, all 9 players with 2007 eligibility expiration will graduate this year.

2008 Eligibility Expiration:Kevin GradyBrandon HarrisonBrandon LoganMario ManninghamAustin PanterTerrance TaylorKevin Grady has not played this year, and will likely redshirt unless there is a huge problem with healthy running backs later in the year (more on that later). His eligibility will likely be moved back to 2009 expiration. All other players will remain at 2008 eligibility expiration.

2009 Eligibility Expiration:Justin BorenCarlos BrownStevie BrownGreg MathewsBrandon MinorAdam PattersonAll of these players have played extensively this year, and none will be eligible to redshirt.

2010 Eligibility Expiration:Zion BabbArtis ChambersToney ClemonsMarrell EvansVince HelmuthJ.R. HemingwayBrandon HerronAvery HornMark HuygeRyan MallettJames RogersRenaldo SagesseSteven ThreetRyan VanBergenDonovan WarrenSteve WatsonMartell WebbMichael WilliamsTroy WoolfolkBabb and Chambers have played this year, but probably not enough to be ineligible for the Trademarked Michigan “injury” redshirt. Chambers’s status is more up in the air because of his academic issue. Clemons, Helmuth, Hemingway, Mallett, Rogers, Sagesse, Warren, Webb, and Woolfolk have played enough (and late enough in the season) that they will not be able to redshirt.

This leaves Evans, Herron, Horn, Huyge, Threet, VanBergen, Watson, and Williams who are likely to redshirt (Threet has to because it is his transfer year).

If you notice anything wrong with what I’ve laid out here, please let me know.

Wondering what Paul and I were talking about Saturday night? Here is your chance to find out. Moderately edited version of our conversation follows.

LSU v. Kentucky

Paul: that [LSU/Kentucky] was a crazy gameTim: yeahTim: i can’t decide if i’m happy about the result or notPaul: i now have no clue what my ballot will look likeTim: no jokeTim: i probably have osu #1Tim: cal #2 [pre-Cal loss]Paul: les miles threw rockTim: yeahTim: which is what lloyd haters hateTim: but…Tim: i guess he is a true michigan manPaul: kentucky wasn’t exactly paper against rock all gameTim: truf

Play-by play Announcers

Tim: cbs announcers are terrrrrrrriblePaul: i don’t hate vernePaul: that would be like hating your grandpaTim: they are frontrunners to promote the SEC. Whoever is winning is doing so because they are just that much more awesome than the almost equally-awesome team they are beatingTim: i’m going to be honestTim: the SEC, Pac 10, and big 10 are about the same on a multi-year basisPaul: yeahTim: =-oPaul: and also… there’s no way to compare conferencesTim: the SEC thing comes from an exclusive-ish contractTim: because CBS promotes the SEC like its their jobTim: whereas ABC/ESPN is split amongst all conferencesTim: pac-10 gets bonus cred from the fox thing, but not muchTim: when BTN is national, B10 will get more respect [I believe this to be inevitable ay this point]Paul: i watched a bit of the nd gameTim: yeahTim: ND sucksTim: BC was unimpressivePaul: nbc seemed to be thinking “fuck. first hockey, now this”Tim: yeahTim: they were still pathetic ND homers thoughTim: per usualPaul: i only get so mad at the homerishPaul: i mean…Paul: it’s basically like the announcers on fsn for the tigersTim: yeahPaul: if they only cover one team… i guess it’s allowedTim: but vastly differentPaul: it’s that it’s a national network rather than an rsnTim: because FSN uses tigers-specific peopleTim: nbc is a national networkTim: and should theoretically be bias-lessPaul: i bet a vast majority of their audience (esp. this year) appreciates the biasPaul: and if they were non-biased, they would be accused of hatingTim: haha espn throws hart a bone in heisman raceTim: in case you aren’t watching ak/auburnTim: ak being my hilariously erroneous “arkansas” abbreviation, rather than its accurate “alaska” abbreviation

Michigan Injuries

Paul: any word on mhart’s condition?Tim: he’s fineTim: was going to come out soon anywayTim: could have come back otherwise [prior to the high-ankle sprain news]Paul: i kind of felt like it was a 30pt lead injuryTim: and, apparently mouton isn’t so much injured as he gets beaten out by chris grahamTim: ouchTim: that’s like getting beaten out by jason gingellPaul: i knowTim: sorry, bryan wrightTim: but you suckPaul: apparently wright has a groin injuryPaul: at least that’s the excuseTim: really?Paul: except he’s doing kosTim: i had no ideaTim: he’s not having distance issuesTim: which i would think would be the probem with an injuryPaul: i knowTim: especially since an injury like that wouldn’t last 8 weeks, without getting either better or worsePaul: what happened with englemon?Tim: ?Paul: was it just “blow out- get him out?”Tim: dunnoPaul: stevie was in with the rest of the 1st teamTim: i didn’t notice he went outTim: i think it’s “try to prepare for the future” timePaul: which could make sense for learningTim: in that particular caseTim: i didn’t feel like staying for the press conferencesTim: so i don’t know for surePaul: gotchaTim: but englemon was walking fine after the gameTim: so i’d assume it’s getting brown starting minutesPaul: i bet it was learningTim: esp. considering he was really the starter at the beginning of the yearPaul: yeahPaul: good choice…

Michigan Special Teams

Paul: what’d you think of our ko strategy?Tim: especially since an injury wouldn’t last 8 weeksPaul: some kids behind me were bitchingPaul: yeahTim: i wasn’t upsetTim: when they are #2 in the country in yds/koTim: plus the first onePaul: by the way… zoltan has mind lasersTim: you do what you have toTim: it’s an example that lloyd doesn’t just throw rock while ignoring the resultsTim: zoltan has all sorts of lasersPaul: this team has made so many adjustments throughout the seasonTim: including fuck lion lasers

The game itself

Paul: so do you ascribe to the “we’re actually a pretty good team at this point” reasoning or the “purdue == straw man” argument?Tim: a bit of bothTim: though i definitely believe in eachTim: so more like a lot of bothPaul: the thing is… michigan didn’t just winTim: we could have put up 80 if we wantedPaul: they were like, “I’ll see your shellacking, and raise you a walloping, OSU…”Paul: so… can we say that the D didn’t give up one legit TD?Tim: whether you give them a 6 yard drive or not, you still gave up a tdTim: especially since you allowed them to tie the gamePaul: it was 4…Tim: but the only legit td was definitely on the offensePaul: yeahTim: sorry i was on the field where i couldn’t see exactly how many yards

Crowd

Tim: the crowd was actually pretty fucking goodTim: especially for a blowoutPaul: it was pretty quiet after hart went outTim: hart went out when the game was long overPaul: and when we couldn’t find him after halfPaul: it’s truePaul: it was nice to have a full on wave in kind of garbagy timeTim: yeahTim: and it was early 3rd tooPaul: it was nice to have garbage time

Comcast

Tim: i hate comcast fyiTim: i fully intend to call and bitch at them wasted tonightTim: though BTN has them by the balls if they get the UM/MSU gamePaul: yeahTim: as both talent and the exec producer and producers think will happenPaul: the comcast OD lady gave me the company line when i was talking to herTim: oh yeah?Paul: yehaPaul: i bit my tounge

I thought last week was the hardest was going to be the hardest top-ten list I was going gto make, but then everything I thought I knew went to hell. The one constant I still had was made variable with LSU losing to Kentucky.

I really don’t know how to set it up. Do I go by the teams I think are better (e.g. USC vs. BC) or straight resume (have USF in the top). What follows will be kind of a mish-mash of the two ideas. There aren’t 10 top 10 teams in the country, so without further ado:

Joe Tiller was really, really unclassy in this game. He went out of his way to extend the game, potentially getting some guys hurt, so that it wouldn’t look as bad on the bottom line.

If you think Henne is too quiet on the field, you should have heard the way he layed into Mario for dropping that hitch.

No highlight video this week, because the person I sent to film the game managed to lose the sideline passes before getting there. This also puts doubt on whether or not there will be one for the Minnesota game, in addition the last home game on the schedule (yes, that last home game on the schedule).

Geriatric cheerleaders are really awesome.

Apparently Jonas Mouton hasn’t been too hurt to play, he just got beaten out by some guys who aren’t very good.

For those who aren’t quite aware of the coverage situation, it basically breaks down like this:

ABC gets first choice for every weekend in terms.

Big Ten Network has 2nd choice half the weeks, 3rd the other half.

BTN gets to”play the second choice card”at their discretion.

Each Big Ten team must be on BTN at least once per month.

There are more nuances, but these are the relevant aspects of the deal for now. The Big Ten Network played their second choice card this week, and they have 2 of them left. Michigan must be covered in November. Their November games are as follows:

November 3 Michigan @ Michigan State

November 10 Michigan @ Wisconsin

November 17 Ohio State @ Michigan

These are all big games, with Ohio State definitely slated to appear on ABC, and one of the other two having to be on the Big Ten Network. The November 3rd weekend Big Ten schedule looks like this:

Wisconsin @ Ohio State

Michigan @ Michigan State

Purdue @ Penn State

Illinois @ Minnesota

Iowa @ Northwestern

Ball State @ Indiana

…I think you can figure out where this is headed by now. The Wisconsin @ Ohio State game is already locked into ABC. The Big Ten has a second-choice card left. They will play it in a week that a) gives them the bet game they can get, and b) puts a ton of pressure on Comcast.

The Michigan/Michigan State game is almost guaranteed to be on the Big Ten Network. Please note that this is mostly speculation, but it is not without good sources.

Steve Schilling will start at right guard, and Mark Ortmann will play left tackle.Minor and Manningham are both back in uniform this week. Minor will start on kickoff returns. Lloyd specifically avoided calling their absence last week “suspensions,” saying “They didn’t play.” instead.K.C. Lopata is your FG kicker, but Bryan Wright will kick anything longer than 50 yards.

If Michigan were to win 12 straight games, and lose in the National Championship game, fans would be upset. The expectations at Michigan are such that anything less than a national championship will inevitably lead to disappointment.

In college basketball, this may not be the case. When George Mason reached the Final Four in 2006, they were upset to lose, but simply making it that far was an accomplishment in and of itself. Is it time for a culture change? Are people taking sports too seriously? I don’t know the answer, but it’s certainly worth thinking about.